Do you think this Gen X name will ever be popular again?

[Anonymous]

I love the name Christina. It's hardly ever used anymore for baby girls. What are your thoughts? Should I just do it?

And it's definitely not Christine that I want to use... It's Christina, with an a at the end.

[Anonymous]

Sure. If you like it, go for it! Maybe you will get lucky and it will catch on.

[Anonymous]

It's not gen x-specific but a classic name that's been around forever. So much the better it's not popular now!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not gen x-specific but a classic name that's been around forever. So much the better it's not popular now!

??? Why would someone want to give their child an unpopular name? Weird.

[Anonymous]

I'm a college prof and have a decent amount of Christians and Christianas and Kriste(i)ns. It never really left.

[Anonymous]

I think it's also a Millennial name -- if you look at it's popularity, it peaked in the late 70s/early 80s but remained pretty popular (top 100) until 2002. Lots of Millennial women named Christina (and Christine, Christy, Chrissy, etc.)

I think if you love a name, use it. There's a weird thing that happens around naming babies where people start thinking about names in the macro sense like is this name too popular? too trendy? not popular enough? etc. But when you meet a person and they tell you their name, do you immediately think about it's relatively popularity levels for their generation or where it now sits on the SSN charts? Some might, but I don't. I only think about whether it suits them or not, or whether I like it, find it easy or pleasant to say, or if it's a name I've heard before, I might think of others I know with it. That's it. I never think about it the way people seem to think about baby names. It's very personal and individual.

Which is a long way of saying that if you love a name, I would not worry if it was "Gen X" or what it's popularity was (now or in the past). I'd want to make sure I had mostly good associations with it and I might test it out for a bit to see if it felt right. But the fact that it was popular in the 70s would be neither a strike for nor against.

[Anonymous]

I personally have not meet another Gen X Christina. Several Christines, Kristens, and Kirstens, but no Christina. I do know a young Millennial Christina.

I think you are safe to use it. Don't worry about popularity.
-Gen Xer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a college prof and have a decent amount of Christians and Christianas and Kriste(i)ns. It never really left.

I think it's long been a very popular name among Catholics. Extremely common in central and South America, as well Spain and Italy (Cristina). Also pretty similar in sound to many other Latin names like Valentina and Catalina, both of which are skyrocketing in popularity.

Americans may have stayed away from it simply because it became fairly ubiquitous in the 70s and 80s, which means that parents naming babies over the last 20 years or so like know a few Christinas who are their contemporaries, and people have drifted from using names from their own generation as of late. But in other cultures, naming after family members, including living family, is more common, and a name like Christina is likely to be a perennial favorite, like Elizabeth or Caroline is in the US or UK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I personally have not meet another Gen X Christina. Several Christines, Kristens, and Kirstens, but no Christina. I do know a young Millennial Christina.

I think you are safe to use it. Don't worry about popularity.
-Gen Xer

Why would anyone worry about a name’s popularity? What a peculiar thing to be worried about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not gen x-specific but a classic name that's been around forever. So much the better it's not popular now!

??? Why would someone want to give their child an unpopular name? Weird.

NP. Why would someone want to give their child a popular name that so many others will have? Weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not gen x-specific but a classic name that's been around forever. So much the better it's not popular now!

??? Why would someone want to give their child an unpopular name? Weird.

I think it's weird to want your child to have the same name as 5 others in their classroom.

I like the name Christina.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not gen x-specific but a classic name that's been around forever. So much the better it's not popular now!

??? Why would someone want to give their child an unpopular name? Weird.

NP. Why would someone want to give their child a popular name that so many others will have? Weird.

Because most of us want our children to have a recognizable and popular name?

It’s not like a name is some precious commodity where obscurity bestows novelty and makes a child more unique or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I personally have not meet another Gen X Christina. Several Christines, Kristens, and Kirstens, but no Christina. I do know a young Millennial Christina.

I think you are safe to use it. Don't worry about popularity.
-Gen Xer

+1. My experience exactly.
Regardless, if you love it, OP, go for it. I don’t think your DC will end up one of many.

[Anonymous]

I love the name Kristine. If I weren’t Jewish I’d have named my DD that. Go for your Christina!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not gen x-specific but a classic name that's been around forever. So much the better it's not popular now!

??? Why would someone want to give their child an unpopular name? Weird.

NP. Why would someone want to give their child a popular name that so many others will have? Weird.

There are basically no names where that is true anymore, though. The most popular girl names now will account for around .1% of all babies that year. Compare that to the 70s when nearly 4% of all baby girls were named Jennifer.

There's more diversity of names in general, which somewhat unexpectedly has the benefit of making even the most popular names more unique. So you can name your kid Charlotte or Olivia and odds are actually decent they will never be in a class with a child who has the same name.

And conversely, you can give your kid a much less popular name and, whether by random chance or by micro-trends in your area/socio-economic class, they may encounter multiple kids with that name as they grow up, even if it's ranked way down in the 900s or something. I've seen this happen.